A Trip to Australia and New Zealand
Sydney - Australian Museum
Some of the items that are on display in the Australian Museum are fabulous and the artistic esthetic of a number of the designs is very different from anything that I have ever seen before anywhere else in the world. Much of the art is done with dots and, in all candor, it disturbed me at first, but after seeing a decent sampling of it I got into the groove and now I actually like it although, in all truth, I am not certain that I would be able to hang it over the fireplace.
Folks that have studied this art have told me that using dots for art on bark or board is derived from the art of painting on a person's body. Everything in aboriginal body art has meaning and a given design of lines of dots is often owned by a particular clan or tribe. Body art is done by recognized artists in each of the tribal communities and it is used carefully and with purpose. During our visit to Sydney, three different itinerate aboriginal street musicians took turns playing their didgeridoo on Circular Quay. Two of them were very large men who wore only a loin cloth so that their audience could admire the white paintings that were all over their bodies. The third fellow was dressed in western clothing and had a difficult attitude. He didn't sell as many of his CDs as the other two men did. We enjoyed their music, but did not buy any of the CDs.
Some of the works qualify as primitive and graphic while others remind me of rock art that I have actually seen on the walls of canyons in the American Southwest. I am told that at least some of these designs have magical powers.
